456 Transactions. — Geology. 



coast. Shocks of earthquakes are frequently felt at Taupo ; but 

 the natives, little conscious of their cause, have been in the habit 

 of regarding them as tokens of fruitful seasons. Tongariro thev 

 supposed to be the place on which Maui's hook fastened when he 

 fished up the Island of New Zealand. They have a curious 

 tradition of the origin of its sulphurous tires : thev sav that a 

 man or some other being named Ngatoroirangi, with his two 

 sisters, Taungaroa and Haungaroa, came from a great distance 

 in the north to fix their abode in this neighbourhood ; but 

 Ngatoroirangi, in ascending Ruapaka, found his feet affected by 

 the snow, whereupon his sisters lit some brimstone on Tongariro 

 to warm them, and. having cured his feet, they departed : but 

 the brimstone has continued to burn since that period. Thev 

 also say that Taranaki, or Mount Egmont, was formerly situated 

 by the side of Tongariro, but that they quarrelled about another 

 mountain named Kopihanga lying between them : they fought. 

 Tongariro conquered, and Taranaki fled to his present position." 

 DiefTenbach, in May, 1841, was the first man with scientific 

 training who visited Taupo, and he thus writes of it : ' Lake 

 Taupo is situated in a straight line between Cape Egmont and 

 the East Cape, the direction of which is nearly north-east and 

 south-west. From bearings of the compass of points of the 

 coast astronomically ascertained, its lat. is 38° 45' S., and its 

 long. 176° E. In this north-east and south-west direction the 

 country is impressed with the traces of volcanic action, which is 

 indeed still going on, and had its principal point of activity in 

 the crater of Tongariro, the base of which is about twelve miles 

 distant from the lake. There are, besides, innumerable boiling 

 springs, solfataras, and tufas in the same line, and its eastern- 

 most boundary is the island of Puhia-i-wakari, or White Island, 

 which must be regarded as the summit of a crater still active 

 and but little elevated above the level of the sea. Besides these 

 proofs of a powerful volcanic action, there is in that geographical 

 line a chain of lakes, most of them intimately connected with 

 the eruptive character of the country. Of these lakes Taupo 

 is the largest : it has an irregular triangular shape ; its greatest 

 length is about thirty-six miles, its greatest breadth not less than 

 twenty-five ; its borders are in many places deeply indented. 

 . . . . The northern and western shores of the lake are the 

 most hilly, while the eastern shore is much more open. Here, 

 to the north-east, a volcanic cone marks the place where the 

 River Waikato issues from the lake. . . . The scenery <>n 

 the western shore of the lake is magnificent — vigorous trees 

 overhanging the l»l;ul< trachitic or basaltic escarpments of the 

 shore. . . . Where this shore joins the delta of the Wai- 

 kato there is a narrow belt of flat land, on which stands the 



